The United States of America (US) and 17 other countries called on Hamas to release the hostages as a step to end the crisis in Gaza.
"We call for the immediate release of all hostages that Hamas has been holding in Gaza for more than 200 days," a statement issued jointly by the countries said, a US administration official said.
He called the joint statement an extraordinary display of unanimity, reports Reuters.
All 18 countries have nationals held by Hamas for six months after they launched an October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,2 people.
Hamas is believed to still be holding 129 hostages out of a total of 253 they took in early October.
The attack by Hamas led to a retaliatory reaction by Israel, which launched attacks on Gaza, in which more than 34.300 people have died since the beginning of October, according to the Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas.
In addition to the USA, the invitation to Hamas was signed by the leaders of Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and Britain.
"We emphasize that an agreement on the release of the hostages would lead to an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, which would allow the arrival of additional necessary humanitarian aid to be delivered throughout Gaza and lead to an apparent end to hostilities," the statement said.
Hamas told Reuters that it would not be influenced by the statement and that the US must force Israel to end its aggression.
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An aid worker who was part of Belgium's development aid efforts in the Gaza Strip was killed in an Israeli strike, the Belgian government said, adding that it had summoned Israel's ambassador over the incident.
Belgian Development Minister Caroline Genez said in a statement that 33-year-old Abdallah Nabhan and his seven-year-old son were killed after the Israeli army bombarded the eastern part of the southern town of Rafah.
Nabhan, whose nationality was not revealed, worked for the Belgian agency "Enabel", helping small businesses, Reuters writes.
"I will call the Israeli ambassador to condemn this unacceptable act and demand an explanation," said the Belgian foreign minister, Hadja Labib, in a post on the X social network platform.
According to the government in Brussels, at least seven people were killed in the attack on the building in which there were about 25 people, including those displaced from other parts of the Gaza Strip.
Israel is seeking to root out Hamas, which controls Gaza, after the militant group killed 1.200 people and took 253 hostages in a cross-border attack on October 7, according to Israeli reports.
More than 34.000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the Palestinian Health Authority.
"The indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure and innocent civilians is against all international and humanitarian law and the rules of war," Genez said.
US President Joseph Biden has appointed Liz Grande as the new special envoy for Middle Eastern humanitarian issues, according to a statement from the State Department.
Grande, who replaced David Satterfield, is currently the head of the independent US Institute of Peace. She previously worked for the United Nations for more than 25 years, a career that included leading aid operations in Yemen, Iraq and South Sudan, Reuters said.
The United States and 17 other countries will today call on Hamas to release the hostages as a way to end the crisis in Gaza, a senior US administration official said.
"We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for more than 200 days," said a statement issued by the countries, according to the official, who called the joint statement an extraordinary show of solidarity, Reuters writes.
In the north, Israeli forces continued to pound Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Zeitoun, and some residents said Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were fighting Israeli ground forces with anti-tank rockets, mortar bombs and sniper fire.
The Palestinian telecommunications company announced that internet services in central and southern Gaza were again interrupted today, blaming Israeli military operations, reports Reuters.
Such disruptions exacerbate obstacles to efforts to get emergency aid to affected civilians and provide medical care in the few centers not yet destroyed by the fighting.
After Israel's abrupt military withdrawal in early April, Palestinians at both ends of the narrow, coastal Gaza Strip were again fleeing what they described as the worst bombardment of the war this week.
Israel stepped up airstrikes on Rafah overnight, killing at least six Palestinians, medics said, after it said it would evacuate civilians from the Gaza border town and storm it despite warnings from allies that it could cause mass casualties, Reuters reports.
Rafah, the last refuge for about a million civilians who fled Israeli attacks further north earlier in the war, has forced some families to go to the nearby coastal area of al Mawasi or try to make their way to points further north, residents and witnesses said.
But the number of displaced people leaving Rafah has remained small, with many confused about where they should go, saying their experience over the past 200 days of war has taught them that no place is truly safe.
Mohamed Nasser, a 34-year-old father of three, said he left Rafah two weeks ago and is now living in a shelter in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza to avoid being surprised by an Israeli invasion and unable to escape.
"We are running from one trap to another, looking for places that Israel calls safe before they bomb us there. It's like a game of rats and traps," he told Reuters via a chat app.
"We are trying to adapt to the new reality, hoping it will get better, but I doubt it will."
Doctors in Gaza and Hamas media reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah earlier today, hitting at least three houses, killing at least six people, including a local journalist.
Four people were killed in a fire by Israeli tanks on the main road near the city of Al Zavid in central Gaza, local doctors said.
A Palestinian civil defense team has called on the United Nations to investigate what it says are war crimes at a hospital in Gaza, saying nearly 400 bodies were pulled from mass graves after Israeli soldiers left the compound, Reuters reports.
"There are cases of executions on the ground of some patients while undergoing operations and wearing surgical gowns at the Nasser Medical Complex," the civil defense force said at a news conference, without providing any evidence.
The Palestinian Authority reported this Sunday that it had found hundreds of bodies in mass graves at Nasser Hospital, the main medical facility in central Gaza, after Israeli troops withdrew from the town of Khan Younis.
It was also reported that the bodies were found in the hospital, Al Shifi, in northern Gaza, which was the target of an operation by Israeli special forces.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Tirk, said on Tuesday he was "appalled" by the destruction of the Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities and reports of mass graves, according to a spokeswoman.
Israel's military said the Palestinian Authority's claims that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) buried the bodies were "baseless and baseless".
Israeli hostage-taking forces were said to have inspected the bodies previously buried by the Palestinians near Nasser's hospital and returned them after they had been inspected.
"The inspection was carried out in a careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence data indicated the possible presence of hostages. The inspection was carried out with respect while preserving the dignity of the deceased," the statement said.
Israel has denied killing those found in the graves and has released footage it says shows Palestinians digging the graves before the IDF operation.
A Palestinian civil defense team accused Israel of burying multiple bodies in Nasser's compound in plastic bags at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet), where they rapidly decomposed, hiding evidence of his "crimes", including torture, it said in a statement.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague is investigating both sides of this war, including the events of October 7 and their aftermath.
The chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said his team was "actively investigating all crimes allegedly committed" in Gaza and that "those who break the law will be held accountable," Reuters concluded.
7 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 34.305, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Reuters reports.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas has entered its 202th day.
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